Singlology – Tony Wong

I went to see this drama totally because of its name! I have been finding my special one for a while now, eagerly wants my name erase from that lonely list! Sometimes I may wonder what does single mean to me. I have lost count of how long I have been single, 3 or 4 years? I’m not so good at remembering unpleasant events. Coming across this drama is like putting a definition in this point of my life. I’m single but I’m happy.

In one of the scenes Tony mentions about “consciousness” and “sub-consciousness”, no matter how many times we are telling ourselves to find the right one, deep down the sub-consciousness is doing its little tricks sending these little messages hinting that we don’t need anyone to make us happy. Everyone of us wants to be loved but still wants to have some of our secret private moments. When we were exhausted after a long day of hard work the only thing we want was to lie down and relax, unfortunately, the one sleeping next to you would just start touching you kissing you, doing all those foreplays, and next thing you do was faking your orgasm. No matter how madly in love you are, from time to time you just need some spare time of your own.

I have realized that don’t really know since when, I start keeping myself intensely busy, don’t even have time to breath! When you are trying too hard to develop a relation with someone, sooner or later you will just grow tried of it, and you will automatically occupied yourself with numerous events, trying to avoid the scene of failing. When you are not over thinking, opportunities just fly in your way, all of a sudden those adorable cupids are surrounding you colouring your atmosphere PINK! Just take it easy and you time will come.

Once just like Tony, there were 2 “fortunetellers” telling me I won’t be able to find true love until I reach my 30s. WTF! Was my first reaction, even now I still couldn’t believe it!! There is still a long way to go! What should I do? Standing where I am and wait for them to come? Really? That doesn’t mean I will simply kill all my potential lovers. There is a friend told me that I should take this chance and time to upgrade myself. Which once you are in love time just becomes a luxurious item. Better get prepared rather than just a pair of emptied hands.

If you are confused being single! Watching this drama may help you clear things out a little bit. Apart from the theme, the show is absolutely enjoyable to watch. Movements/dancing (I don’t really know what people call them), dialogues are hilarious and yet inspiring. As it is preformed in a small theater and a solo play, the actor often interacts with the audiences. We were just like on same stage together, so intimate, and so close, like talking with your BFF. Don’t miss it if it re-runs later!!

I love you Phillip Morris – Glenn Ficarra & John Requa

“I don’t want to live in a lie any more.” Said Steven Russell “but living a life I want is expensive.”

From a car accident Russell realized that life is short so he abandons his wife and daughter and starts living the way that he really wants – a glamorous homosexual life. In order to live a luxurious life he becomes conman. Not long he is caught and go to jail and meet the love of his life – Phillip Morris.

There is a 360 change in Russell’s life, buying nice cars, pedicure, on vacation, rich… somehow the movie does emphasis all those things Russell is living are a fraud, he has to lie to get into his way. Lies build one after another, one bigger than the other, even when he meets the love of his life. It makes you wonder is it really possible to do this? It is just too easy. However, the movie claimed it was based on a true story. If those events really happened in real life, I just couldn’t believe how stupid and careless people were.

There are a lot stereo-typing going on, people always misunderstand the life of a homosexual, which in this case Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) imitates most of them. I remember there is a scene where Russell’s wife asks the doctor whether stealing is part of being gay is a sort of a disorder. What? This totally proved how ignorant and homophobic the Americans are. One more thing homosexuals are not ALL living in a luxurious life like Russell does in the movie, not everyone can afford a life like that I have to say.

Love can always be the motivation of life. Like Russell, once he has met Phillip, he has tried everything to be with him. After his imprisonment, he quickly plays his tricks, poses as a lawyer and gets him out of prison. In order to have a life with Phillip, he has to find a job to support him and his love. But yet again, he managed to fake voices, forge documents to get a lucrative financial job and live in a privileged life-style. And later prison breaking to get to Phillip’s side again. Nevertheless he has just used the wrong way to approach the whole situation.

Living as a fraudster is like a ticking time bomb, the time in heaven won’t last forever. One day when you can’t cover your lies anymore and the truth reveals. You will find yourself left alone, not being trusted. If you can even fake your identity, people will judge how much they really know you. When you try to use lies to keep your loved ones close, the result will be pushing them much farther away. When you see Phillip slaps Russell you just don’t really know what to think. One hand, you will admire how Russell does all those tricks to get near Phillip but on the other side, those are yet again, LIES. He definitely loves him but could you stand sleeping next to a guy when you don’t know when he is telling the truth?

Despite all those unconvincing arts, “I love you Phillip Morris” is a relaxing movie to watch. Enjoying how ridiculously Jim Carrey plays his part, and how Ewan McGregor reacts to Carrey’s actions. This is a comedy not a romance story but still sweet.

Let the Right One In – Tomas Alfredson

How many of us can actually bear the loneness of being isolated most of the time, without anyone to talk to, no one to play with, being in a broken family, being bullied, being ignored or just simply being ALONE?

“Let the right one in” is talking about a vampire moving in to a town living next to a 12-year-old boy who is always being bullied at school and how they develop a relation between a vampire and a human. However, this is not a typical romance story, it’s more about life and how people deal with their difficulties.

There are a lot of mysteries in “Let the right one in”, like Eli’s guardian, some critics said he was her father, I’m not sure whether I missed that or not, I’ve just never come across it mentioning anything about his true identity. Second, Eli’s sex, from the appearance she obviously looks like a girl. However, when Oscar asks her to be his girlfriend, she just keep saying she is not a girl, but never did mention once what is she. Eli once asked Oscar “Will you still love me if I’m not a girl?” The direct deliberately cast a feminine girl instead of an androgynous boy (as in the original), as he doesn’t want it instantly fall into the homosexual genre, as it will distract the understanding of the message behind. Third is how she turned into a vampire in such a young age. How long has she been 12? What is hidden behind?

We are only looking at a specific part of her life, which intersected with Oscar’s in this story. Oscar’s life is equally full of mysteries and intriguing, too. Somehow you will sympathize with the whole situation. What he has been through. When you are the victim at school, no one would want to be friends with you, as they don’t want to be the target as well. When you are living in a single-parent family. There is no one to talk to at home, as your mum is always out working to support the family. What you really need is a FRIEND, no matter she is human or not.

Solitary is always what most of the people are avoiding, we are always trying to fit in, belong to somewhere. No matter how much you say you don’t want any friend, deep down you are as eager as anybody else. At least most of us are trying to find someone or just even one person in the world to understand what we are going through, what we really need. Like Eli and Oscar they both seem to understand each other perfectly, of cause we could not expect someone to trust you right away, we have to give time to do the magic for us, most of the time we just can’t rush, sometime a few straggling or uncertainties are inevitable. Is a matter of how you handle it.

I have to say the two young actors in this movie perform magnificently, I have leant that the casting for this movie was a year long, open call in many places and finally ended up with Kåre Hedebran as Oscar and Lina Leandersson as Eli. I just love how pale Hedebran was in the movie, even paler then Leandersson. They both make the story much more believable by their gesture and the little squint of their eyes. Sometimes working with young actors is a bit of a challenge, as they tend to overact most of their parts as they are trying to impress. Nevertheless in this case both of them just delivered without trying too hard.

This is more than just a common Vampire-Human romance story. Giving it this caption might kill your appetite for watching this movie. But I can assure you this is beyond the ones currently being shown.

An American version is scheduled to be released on October 1, 2010. Few alterations were made to be more palatable for worldwide audiences. Taking the place of Eli is Chloe Moretz (Hit girl in Kick Ass). Being recently involved in a violence superhero flick there is no doubt she would not deliver as a cold-blooded vampire. Somehow I just can’t picture her a softer side of Eli, as the Swedish version Eli looks more like a vampire, Motetz to me is more of a typical American girl. Don’t really know what to expect but we’ll see.

Bought the book! Will work on it soon!

The Crazies – Breck Einer

Danger is always around us, who would have thought drinking contaminated tap water would bring us harm more than just a diarrhea. In this case it is a disease, which is caused by an accidental leak of toxin from biological weapon. People who got infected will go mad and start killing others.

The story falls into two sub-plots, one the manic killing “zombies” and the army trying to put the crazies. There is one thing the movie didn’t clearly stated, how can the virus spread? We are only certain it is waterborne, it did mention airborne, if it is true then everyone can get infected. Somehow I think the crew did this on purpose as it will raise the anxiety of the audiences and try to fall into the scenario.

This movie is a remake of 1970s horrid king George A. Romero’s who was famous for his zombie flick. Although I did not see the movie, I definitely think it was a brilliant idea back then, no one would really give a thought of how zombie was made and he just gave it an explanation. Einer just make it contemporary and convincing. They are not really zombies, they function like everyone else, they look like us, and the only difference is they just look a little crazy that’s all. It is disturbingly terrifying. I don’t know who are the crazies how could I avoid them when they are everywhere.

The theme of The Crazies inherent most its genre “who can be trusted?” Friends, family. colleagues, the government, the army? Who? What would you do if your closest friend got infected and started to go crazy and lost his mind? How about if that was your pregnant wife?

The version showing in Hong Kong is edited from cat.3 to 2. So I assumed I didn’t see the full version as everyone did around the world. And the things I missed out are those more violent/bloody killing scenes, which is the whole selling point of the movie they should never be cut from the first place. The survived scenes are not totally terrifying but most of the time they are just scares. There always someone suddenly come out from nowhere and there is no way you could get prepare! Which I think is a good thing because most of the horror movies attempt to do these kinds of scares but most of them fail, as they are too predictable.

There is the other side of the story – the cause of this contagious disease, clearly the blame should put on the Government. The movie reveals how much the government involved and tried to blind-side the public. Somehow I do believe there is a lot more then the government is telling us, secretly they are working on some deadly weapons getting ready for war.

Overall it is the standout piece in its genre.

Fighting – Dito Montiel

If you are a college graduate will pick up fighting as a way to make money? NO way!! Sheer killing time piece.

Shawn McArthur (Channing Tatum) is struggling to make ends meet by selling things on the streets. He runs into a fight and Harvey Boarden (Terrence Howard) sees something in him, and recruits him into the underground streetfighting “club” to make big money.

The fighting scenes are terrific! Every punch and kick is perfectly choreographed which make you sometimes feel the plain of that fist landing on your stomach. Ouch! Credits have to be given to the director Dito Montiel. He knows how to work with the light, there are moments when the sun shine through the window and hit the actors’ faces, and they are beautiful! However, this kind of good shots only appear in the quiet shots, when it down to the fighting scenes it gone all shaky and wild, I know he is going for a chaotic feeling but they are disturbing. Luckily the fights save the disturbance.

Somehow the plot of the movie is not really convincing, there is not enough to support the way Shawn McArthur acts why he picks selling counterfeit products on the street but not finding a real job? Why he picks up Zulay (Zulay Henao) so fast and starts to offer her help. I know he has a notorious background in the wrestling team back then, I just didn’t buy it. And why would a mum buy a Harry Potter book for her 3-4 year-old daughter for $20 anyway.

Channing Tatum is not delivering in this movie, though this is an interesting character, all those struggles in his life and all he has been through I just don’t get much from Tatum, I can picture any built actor in his place and do it better, I know people would see this movie because of him, like me but I feel like I was tricked into this. He has better moments. Not all the actors are bad, Terrence Howard nailed his part with not so much to work on.

I only would recommend this movie if you were bored to death and had nothing to do. It is a good one with some fist fighting thrills.

Little Ashes – Paul Morrison

Little Ashes is the biopic of two influential people in the world, the Spanish painter Salvador Dali (Robert Pattinson) and poet/dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca (Javier Beltran). Their acquaintance had been the subject for many years. Everyone knew about the homosexuality of Lorca, on the other hand Dali denied it all though his life and not until in his last years he finally admitted something more than friendship was going between both of them.

No body is certain about what had really happened, through their letters, the only thing we are sure is something was going on there. They had developed beyond friendship but how far? Dali once stated Lorca had tried to screw him twice and he was extremely annoyed as he wasn’t homosexual. However he also stated “Deep down I felt that he was a great poet and that I owe him a tiny bit of the Divine Dali's asshole.” I’m not trying to draw a assumption here but the truth speaks for itself.

Not only Dali but also most of us are hiding at least a part of ourselves, wishing no body would ever find out. Sometime is not always about how people look at you, is how you see yourself. We are always so conscious of what others would think which somehow hinder our truthfulness not only to others but most importantly ourselves. The hardest task in the world is to face yourself in the minor and look at your wounds and falsenesses and show them to the world. It is about being yourself and being naked in front of others.

Compare to the recent biopics Seraphine (A French Navie painter) and John Kates (Romantic Poet) they all share the same sadness. I know sometimes we need some experiences to carry on our lives and it is an integral part specially being an artist but it is depressing when I learnt most of them suffered more than they enjoyed themselves. The more I perk into their lives the more I realize success never comes easy. Suck it up people.

The surprise of the movie is Robert Pattinson, never thought that he could actually act. He is known for his role in the Twilight series, and Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter series which probably not so recognizable. People go crazy for him just because of his look, no matter how much I love the Twilight series there is not single moment I was touched by Pattinson but now I’m impressed. Pattinson captures the initial shyness and growing flamboyance of Dali brilliantly. Have to say Pattinson was brave enough to take this role.

The only problem I had with this movie was the accent. There is not reason to have such a heavy Spanish accent while making this movie in English in the first place. It was really hard to follow sometimes. It did give a slightly hint of being a foreign story. Nevertheless it would be better if had been in Spanish. It will be more believable. I still like it this way otherwise I will never know Pattinson can act.

This is only a speculation of the life of Dali and Lorca, no matter they are real or not this is still a moving piece. There are so many limitations when you are trying to live without them. In the movie Dali said if you want to be a good artist you must go beyond limits. No rules, no regrets, no returns.

Dear John – Lasse Hallström

There are a lot of differences between the movie and the book. If you have read the book first you will love the movie more, if you have watched the movie first, there are places not so convincing but still enjoyable. Anyway it is a good adoption of the book. Books and Movies both are using two different methods to tell a story. In this case both work.

I love how the movie starts when John was talking about what was the first thing entered his mind after he got shot. Coins, the passion he and his father shared when he was young. He also compares himself as a coin of the US army, being minted, serving the country, but he is no longer perfect because there are two little holes on his body. It used a different approach to bring the importance of coins in his life - the link between his father and him.

Only two weeks and that is more than enough to make you go crazy for someone. I remembered a line by Savannah in the book, “Don’t promise anything when you are not sure you could finish it.” It’s sad this line didn’t make it into the movie, but somehow this is the key of the relationship, a promise keeps John and Savannah writing to each other. Nothing would happen if that promise has never been made. Are you willing to sacrifice your country (it was when 911 happened) and leave your friends to war to keep that promise?

Channing Tatum (John Tyree) I can’t say he is a good actor, from Step up, She’s the Man, to even GI Joe, there is something missing, he is definitely talented, but he is like an unfinished coin ready to be rimmed and beveled. He needs some more time, when his acting mellows he will be big. For Amanda Seyfried (Savannah Lynn Curtis) she surprised me actually, when I saw her playing the guitar and sing, it was just captivating.

Good music always enhances the intensity of the story. I never did realize this until watching Dear John, personal favourite “Paperweight” by Joshua Radin & Schuyler Fisk, this duet is so powerful, matching it with the movie, it helped to tell the story when John and Savannah were apart. You might not have listened carefully for the lyrics at first but when you do it is like looking though Savannah and John’s mind, how they feel for each other. A surprise is the lead Amanda Seyfried herself co-wrote a song for the movie (which I like the movie acoustic version better than the OST version) – “Little House”. Another favourite “You take my troubles away” by Rachael Yamagata & Dan Wilson.

Enjoy this little adventure, first reading the book, watching the movie and last enjoying the OST. I seldom like the movie as much the original, plus loving the soundtrack. This is a first! It is really hard to translate the words into the big screen without awkwardness and keep the beauty of the book. With the aid of music, it just brought out wonderfully.

Listen to this while you are reading this!